The Asian Hockey Federation Congress here on Sunday agreed to enlarge the scope and identity of the sport in the continent with focus on constant development. This, the AHF hoped, will be achieved with the full support and co-ordination with the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
Adopting a new constitution framed in conformity with the statutes of the FIH, the delegates expressed optimism that hockey is poised for a bigger growth in the continent, which the forthcoming Asian Games at Incheon is expected to initiate by conducting the event in a four-quarter system.
Earlier, in the last council meeting, Tan Sri Alagendra, who laid down office as Secretary-General after a 16-year tenure, acknowledged the contribution of all the member countries towards new areas of development and appealed to the new committee to take forward the good work executed by the AHF in the previous years. He was confident that the Asian countries would shine more at the world-level competitions.
The meeting observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect to the late Azlan Shah, President, AHF.
The FIH President, Leandro Nagre, who attended the congress with the CEO, Kelley Fairweather, underlined the role of Asian countries in the promotion of the sport over the years.
Negre’s praise for HIMr. Negre paid handsome tributes to Hockey India for coming up with innovative tournaments and hosting several competitions. Narinder Batra, who retained his post as Vice-President the Council, was present at the meeting along with Ms. Norman, CEO, HI.
Mr. Fairweather presented the FIH’s strategic program for the next ten years for making hockey more global in its reach. “We need 200 countries” he observed during the course of the presentation.
With the agreement to reach a consensus achieved successfully in the back-room meetings, there was no election for the posts of Vice-Presidents and Council members. Prince Abdullah Tuanku Ahmad Shah of Malaysia and Fumio Ogura of Japan were elected as President and Treasurer respectively. Thyyab Ikram will be the CEO.
India’s Manpreet Singh was declared the best junior men player for the year and We Heung Yu of Chinese Taipei the junior woman. Pakistan’s Mohammad Shafique and Akhane Shibata of Japan were chosen as the players of the year for men and women.
AHF office bearers (2014-18): President: Prince AbdullaTuanku Ahmad Shah (Malaysia); Vice-Presidents: Chaiyapak Siriwat (Thailand), Narinder Batra (India), Berikkazy Seksenbayev (Kazakistan), Rana Mujahind (Pakistan) and Ms. Shin Jung Hee (Korea); Treasurer: Fumio Ogura (Japan). CEO: Thyyab Ikram (Macau).
Council: Abdul Rahim Ariff (Malaysia), Mathavan Devadas (Singapore), Bahram Shafie (Iran), Akhtar Rasool (Pakistan), Sumith Edirisinghe (Sri Lanka), Abdul Rashid Sikdar (Bangladesh), Li Gao Chao (China), Shamala Subramaniam (Malaysia), and Masako Kamisuki (Japan).
Honorary Life President: Tan Sri Alagendra.
